October 29, 2007 -- BOCA RATON, Fla. - Jason Binn, president of Niche Media, again stole the show opening night at the American Magazine Conference with his now famous dinner party, drawing media reporters and guests as diverse as Dan Rather and the Miami Heat's Alonso Mourning.
Rather told Media Ink that he has every intention of seeing his lawsuit against CBS Inc. through the sworn deposition stage and beyond.
Newsweek Chairman Rick Smith, clearly near the end of his long and distinguished career, told us that he has no intention of writing a book about his days of working with the late Katharine Graham and running the news magazine for the Washington Post Co.
However, if he changes his mind, Media Ink thinks he has plenty of material to draw upon.
He recalled how Graham wanted to fire veteran Newsweek Editor Maynard Parker back in 1984 and appoint Smith as his replacement. But Smith intervened and convinced Graham and the board to keep Parker on board as editor, with Smith vowing to help keep Parker from going off the rails on major stories as he had done several years earlier with the publication of the now-debunked Hitler Diaries.
Parker ended up staying and serving admirably for the rest of his career until his death from leukemia in 1998.
But as riveting as the anecdote might be, Smith said he has no intention of "taking a walk down memory lane" with his own memoir.
"I've seen too many editors write bad books," he said.
Such is not the case with many of the party's other attendees.
New York Times scribe David Carr said he is working on final edits on his memoir about his days of addiction and then his career as an editor, reporter and columnist, which he is writing for big bucks for Simon & Schuter's David Rosenthal.
Carr said he's hoping the book makes it onto the spring 2008 list so it is not running into all the important books that are bound to make an appearance during the election cycle.
People Managing Editor Larry Hackett was one of only a very few Time Inc. people on hand at this year's event.
He interviewed former White House press secretary Tony Snow at the opening session Sunday night.
Snow said he thought the race for the presidential nomination was all but over for the Democrats, with Hillary Clinton all but walking away with it, but not so for the Republicans. He scurried out after his talk and skipped the Binn dinner.
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